Angel City Dunkel

Brewed by Angel City Brewing Company
Style: Dunkel
Torrance, California USA

Fresh out of the brew tank at Angel City Brewing. Pours a deep and tantalizing brown hue. Aroma is that of sweet mature fruit and rich chocolate malt. The taste is really complex and has many different levels, the malt is flowing and is complimented nicely by the not overly sweet fruit and faint nuttiness. The finish is long and extremely enjoyable with a hint of mild hoppiness. I really was able to get into this and I again must give a big ’’’’HELL YA, THAT’s A DAMN NICE DUNKEL!’’’’ Try this and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

22 bottle from Bev4less. Pours a dark brown with amber highlights and a big clumpy head that lasts a while. The aroma was a bit weak with hints of cherries and sweet roasted malts. The taste was slow to develop; there is not much of anything on the tip of the tongue, but the sides and back fill in with sweet malts, pecans and plums. The mouthfeel starts thin build builds to a malty conclusion. The Finish is long and dry with a lingering sour taste. Overall: I have not had a lot of exposure to the dunkel style so I am not sure how to recommend this beer. This was not a bad beer, but somehow I Just could not get into it.

Bottle from Hi-Time. Rich aromas of dark roasted malt and chocolate. Very dark ruby brown color with a tan head that sticks. Medium body with creamy carbonation (though a bit coarse). Flavor is dark roasted malt with chocolate, touch of coffee, and hints of dark fruits. Finishes out balanced by some hop bitter. Heading towards a baltic porter, but nowhere so sweet as those. It’s a dunkel, but has flavors commoner to porters and stouts. This is a really good drink.

on tap-pours a nice rich tan head and deep mahogany color. Aroma is dark malt, nutty. Taste is dark malt-chocolate/molasses, nutty, dark fruit-cherry, some peat, faint earthy hops. Semi dry finish. Probably big change from the Abbey is the yeast.

Aroma is roasted malts. It pours a disgusting sort of diahrea water color. Actually, iced coffee in a way. Flavor isnt complex. its roasted and dry with a little bit of chocolate I guess. There is also some mold sour flavors, but it does not overpower. It really reminds me more of a porter or brown ale than a lager, as it did not really have any lager characteristics. Oh well.

Bottle. Pours a dark redish brown with medium tan head. Aroma is mildly nutty/coffee. Flavor is semi sweet with a hint of chocolate and coffee. Decently malty, but not heavy. Very clean. I thought this was an excellent, if a bit simple, example of a dunkel.

Tap @ Alpine Village: Pours a dark mahogany color, sweet nutty and caramelly nose, light roast and sweet malts. The flavor is about the same, semi sweet, medium body, dark malts. Finishes clean, decent dunkel. Damn, their bottle sanitation sucks, I got no sour notes from this but looks like most people did.

Bottle from BevMo, La Jolla. Dark brownish ruby color upon pouring. Malty sour aroma. All of their beers seem to have the same sour character to them. Flavor is dominated by a lactic sour quality with the dunkel hidden behind. The sour quality isn’t bad, but I don’t think it’s what they intended for a dunkel. They need to get rid of that sour crap. It really does taste like there might be a decent dunkel underneath that sour cream stuff.